American Go E-Journal » Go News

Valerij Krushelnyckyj 7k went 6-0 to top the field of 19 at the Rivne (Ukraine) Open Championship for those under 12. Vladyslav Verteleckyj 8k was second at 5-1 and Andrij Pylypchuk 11k was third at 4-2. The tournament was held June 5-6.– EuroGoTV

Catalin Taranu 7d (c) swept the finals of the 2010 Romanian Cup to notch his third consecutive title. Cristian Pop 7d (r) went 5-1 to come in second, while Cornel Burzo 6d (l) was one of four with a 4-2 record and came in third. The tournament was held June 4-6 in Pitesti.– EuroGoTV

Qualifiers for this year’s North American Ing Cup (NAIM) tournament have been scheduled. The NAIM features the largest prizes in North America as 32 of the continent’s top players meet each year at the US Go Congress for an exciting week of competition. First up is the June 12 Santa Monica Coffee Cup in Santa Monica, CA. Pre-registration required; abc@okun.nameTHIS JUST IN: also on June 12, the KGC Summer Tournament will be held in Kalamazoo, MI; register at paul@kzoogo.info The New York Go Center NAIMT Qualifier will be held June 13 in New York City; pre-register at badukboris@gmail.com The first KGS NAIM Qualifier is set for June 19 (note: rescheduled from 6/5!) ; pre-registration is required; deadline 6/17 by midnight EST. Email badukboris@gmail.com The second KGS NAIM Qualifier will be held June 26-27; pre-registration required by midnight (EST) June 24: badukboris@gmail.comphoto: at the 2009 Santa Monica NAIM Qualifier; photo by Andy Okun

Kong Jie narrowly defeated Yoda Norimoto by half a point in the first round of the 15th LG Cup, and Lee Changho (at left in photo) defeated Wang Xi by resignation after 231 moves. In a major victory, Gu Li defeated Lee Sedol by resignation after 291 moves; Gu has been in a slump lately, and his win was a major defeat for Lee Sedol who was the favorite to win this year’s LG Cup. After the dust settled, China emerged with a commanding 11 out 16 wins in the first round, while Japan and Taiwan were eliminated, leaving Korea with the remaining five wins. The second round will be played on June 9th.– JustPlayGo for game records

The AGF’s youth go website Tiger’s Mouth have put together a 20-member dream team to challenge Alexandre Dinerchtein 3P and his Insei League, who have been taking on all comers on KGS recently. The Insei League allows KGS players anywhere in the world to take part in a professional go school taught by Dinerchtein and other Korean Professionals. The Inseis crushed the British Go League team 7-3 on May 22nd, followed by a 10-3 rout of the Russian National Female Team (in which 2 of the 3 winners were also members of the Insei League as well as Russian nationals) on May 30th. Poland fought back in style on June 5 though, finally stopping the Inseis 13-7. “Your team will be the next one we beat,” said Dinerchtein, known as Breakfast on KGS, when he challenged the U.S. recently. “Not so fast Breakfast,” responded the AGF’s youth go website Tiger’s Mouth, who put together a 20-member dream team to challenge the Inseis. Team Tigersmouth has star youth players Curtis Tang 8d and Gansheng Shi 8d, plus Calvin Sun 7d, ten more dan level kids, and 7 kyu level players. The stage is set for Sunday June 13th in the AGA Tournaments room on KGS, at 10 am west coast time, observers are welcome. Pairings will be available shortly before the match here, Tigersmouth team info is available here.– Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor

Canadian youth have all but shut the U.S. out of the Redmond Cup this year, with Jianing Gan 6d and Gansheng Shi 8d winning the Senior Division, and Oliver Wolf 2d and Henry Zhang 1d winning the Junior. Zhang is the only one of the three from the U.S., he is also the younger brother of former Redmond champ Hugh Zhang. All four youth have won a free trip to the US Go Congress, where they will play a best two-out-of-three match with their opponent, and split a $1,000 prize pool courtesy of the AGF. The Senior Division, for youth 12-17 years old, had 27 youth competing and featured U.S. stars Curtis Tang 8d, Calvin Sun 7d, and Zhongxia Zhao 7d among the top players. Leading the pack was two-time Redmond Champion and current title holder Gansheng Shi 8d. Shi has a simple but effective strategy: he just wins, all the time. Tang or Sun were both favored in this event, but it was fellow Canadian Jianing Gan who pulled out all the stops to place first. He was the only player to beat Shi, each losing only one out of their seven games. Gan, just 13 years old, will be familiar to E-J readers as the challenger to Myungwan Kim in the SPOT1 finals recently. In the Junior Division, nine kids, all under the age of 12, duked it out for top honors. Ten-year-old Oliver Wolf had the top record, with four wins in five games. Four players had three wins, but Henry Zhang had the best SOS (Sum of Opponents Scores) record, and also was the only player to beat Wolf. The Redmond Cup, now in its 17th year, was directed by Michael Bull.
– Paul Barchilon, EJ Youth Editor. Photo: Yunxuan Li (l) vs. Jerry Shen (r) in 2009 Redmond finals, Jr. Division.

Ads will soon begin appearing on the American Go Association (AGA) website, reports President Allan Abramson. “This will be a new source of revenue for the AGA, as we search for sponsors and donors,” he said. The AGA is working with Advanced Marketing Technologies to implement the website ads and Webmaster Steve Colburn “will monitor implementation to ensure that ads are appropriate to the AGA’s site and audience,” Abramson added. The web advertising was approved by the AGA’s Board last year. Those interested in information on advertising on the AGA website should contact Colburn at webmaster@usgo.org; for general AGA sponsorship questions contact Board fundraising Chair Andy Okun at abc@okun.name

Professional go player Janice Kim 3P (r) will teach a two-day workshop in San Francisco the weekend of July 24-25. The workshop is open to all players 15 kyu and stronger. A unique feature of this workshop is that students will submit game records prior to the workshop so that Kim can customize workshop content to the needs of each student. “Students are to comment their game records before submitting them,” says organizer Roger Schrag, “and Janice will pick the best one, on the basis of quality of level-appropriate questions and clear reasoning, and will award a special prize.” Workshop details are available from the Bay Area Go Players Association. photo by Ernest Brown

Allan Abramson has been re-appointed President for another 2-year term by the American Go Association’s Board of Directors, reports Board Chair Roy Schmidt. “Allan’s initiatives for new, permanent membership cards, cost-reduction measures during the recession, and promotion of online, members-only tournaments won strong support for his re-appointment,” Schmidt told the E-Journal. Abramson pledged to re-double his efforts to promote growth of membership and expand online tournaments to include all AGA members during his next term. Polly Pohl was also re-appointed as AGA Secretary, with the Board expressing its “deepest gratitude for Polly’s accurate record-keeping and tireless fact-checking,” said Schmidt.